Peptide-functionalized polyoxometalates as antimicrobial agents

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasingly serious threat to global public health and immediate action must be taken to prevent its ever-increasing spread. One approach to overcome this problem is the development of new materials and coatings with bactericidal action; in particular those which tackle biofilm formation specifically.

Polyoxometalates are oxoclusters of early transition metals which have found applications in various fields from catalysis to material science or biomedicine. Furthermore, POMs can be derivatised through the direct conjugation of organic or bio-molecules to further enhance their physicochemical properties and unique structural and morphological characteristics as well as to diversify the chemistry that can be carried out with the POM post-functionalisation. Among the vastly proposed biochemical applications of polyoxometalates (POMs), their antibacterial activity has been gaining interest in the few years. Even more, the hybrids formed with POMs can retain or improved this activity, adding as well new interesting properties. Moreover, POMs have been described as inhibitors of the Amyloid-β peptide aggregation, a peptide involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

We will also present preliminary results on new hybrid materials based on the functionalization of POMs with antimicrobial peptides, which possess dual-functional bactericidal and anti-biofilm properties, by tackling both the amyloidogenic proteins in biofilm and the bacteria.